The Milenio daily said soon after the Zapatista uprising in January 1994, the Defense Ministry became convinced the print media was too sympathetic to the guerrillas' cause and began compiling massive files on about 80 key reporters.
The Zapatistas, led by the charismatic, pipe-smoking Subcommander Marcos, briefly fought the military to demand improved rights for Mexico's 10 million Indians before a truce was declared and rebels holed up in jungle hideouts.
Six years on, the fragile truce still holds in the poor state and the rebels remain in the jungle surrounded by tens of thousands of troop.
Milenio said the ministry denied the existence of the files, which were released Friday on the Web page of Internet service provider To2.com. A ministry spokesman told Reuters on Saturday that the armed forces had no comment.
The newspapers said the alleged files contained analyses of the political views and backgrounds of top Mexican writers, such as leftist commentator Lorenzo Meyer, social commentator Jorge Castaneda and investigative reporter Julio Scherer.
In addition, some reporters working for government news agency Notimex and the Excelsior broad sheet, among others, were appointed officers in the army and paid salaries on the condition their coverage of the Zapatista conflict was favorable to the government.
"According to a report titled 'Communication Strategy for the Mexican Army,' and dated March 1995, the ministry began to take measures in order to improve its image," Milenio said.
Journalists covering the war -- which broke out on New Year's Day and proved to be one of the catalysts for a loss of confidence in the Mexican economy that resulted in a disastrous devaluation of the peso in December 1994 -- were graded according to their coverage -- positive, negative or neutral.
Several were secretly appointed captains, lieutenants or sergeants in the army and put on the ministry's payroll.
The alleged report noted the Zapatistas were better at getting their view across than the government but said the strategy of keeping a close eye on reporters paid off.
"The Defense Ministry, from the second half of 1995, reversed the negative tendency that was perceived in the printed press at the start of the present administration," Milenio quoted the report as saying.
Corruption has long plagued the Mexican media because of collusion between media barons and the long ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in power since 1929.
While journalistic independence has grown considerably in the past five years and ethical reporting is now more widespread, many journalists are still paid meager salaries in the expectation they will supplement their income elsewhere.
Copyright 1999 Reuters.
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 13:02:11 -0800 Sender: chiapas-l@burn.ucsd.edu From: Commandante Null <npcia@mindspring.com> Subject: Mexico Paid off Reporters Covering Chiapas -Report